NORTH CAROLINA -- My husband has had service/a contract with Alltel since 2002. We have never been fully satisfied with their service, but have continued to renew our contract. I have constantly called to have misc fees removed, I have had someone else's bill printed on my account and had to pay it and it was debited back the next month. All kinds of crazy stuff. When we purchased our new Smart phones we not advised we would have to pay a whopping $40 extra per line aside from our package price. We have 2 other lines with regular cell phones.

This story takes the cake......

We have NEVER had a prepaid phone with them. I do not know anyone that does. I am very dissatisfied with our current experience with this "Company". I have my personal bank account set for mobile alerts when X amount of money is debited from my checking account. At 3:30 yesterday I received a mobile alert that nearly a $100 debit was pending to my checking account. Since I was watching TV I knew I did not make this purchase (my mobile alerts come in right when the debit hits). I immediately looked at my online banking and saw a pending purchase for $X to Alltel Replenishment. I had no clue what this was. I immediately picked up the phone and called Alltel.

The story gets better..... I PROMISE!!!

The customer service representative informed this is for prepaid services. I informed her I do not have a prepaid service through Alltel. She transferred me to Financial Services. I went through the whole spew with this representative She advised me I needed to be transferred to the Replenishment Dept. and transferred me. I am hold until about 3:45 listening to the Alltel lady with the pleasant voice advising me to buy more prepaid minutes on the recording. A foreign speaking man picks up the phone and wants my prepaid wireless #. I advise him I do not have one. He does not understand and cannot seem to comprehend. I explain the situation to him and he says "Oh, you need contract customer service." I try to tell him, "No, no, no they sent me here." He says, "OK, I transfer you now ma'am." I go through this cycle once more and I am then disconnected in translation.

I go ahead and call my bank and make them aware of this. The representative gives me a series of #s and a 1-800 # and says all the info that was sent from the processing dept and that this was a manual key entry (payment by phone). She advised me the Alltel account # and confirmation # were not provided, and often are left off in the process of a speedy collection. I thank her, ask her to block my account and try to call Alltel back.

When I finally make it back to the Replenishment Dept. an agent laughs at me and says he is going to transfer me back. I hastily replied, "PLEASE, do not transfer me back, I need your supervisor." The man laughs and says, "OK I transfer you now." I am on hold for a little bit listening to that recording again. A lady picks up and says her name is "Jacey". I inform Jacey of my situation and tell her I do not have a prepaid phone. She requests my mobile # and seems to not be able to comprehend the fact that I do not have one either. The foreign lady says, " I no believe you, how do you know it is prepaid if you do not pay for it." I kindly advised her that the people that transferred me back and forth before told me they were sending me to the prepaid department and the little jingle recording thingy offers you to buy more minutes while you are on hold. She completely acted like she did not believe me. She advised me she could pull up the transaction by my debit card and cancel it if she received a fax from my bank or talked to them on 3-way. I thanked her graciously and tried to dial on 3-way. My brand spanking new Blackberry Curve would not let me do a conference call. Ahhh.... I told her and she told me to call from my husbands phone separately.

I did so, I got a bank representative on the phone explained the situation and explained I was on two phones here. My back representative advises me she needs a faxed release form before 9PM or she cannot release it and we will have to dispute the charges. "Jacey" proceeds to tell me this will not work anyway because she has to be on 3-way. I apologize to the bank representative disconnect that call and ask the "Jacey" why she asked me to do it then?!? She said "I need a faxed form from your bank showing the transaction and a copy of your most recent bank statement." I told her I will not have that until next month when my statement cuts. She once again belittled me and asked how did I even know about it if I did not have my statement yet.

I advised her once again of my mobile alerts and online banking. I remind her she said earlier she will delete the payment if she can locate the account. She pulls up all transactions processed from my bank account and says, "Mam, I see that you do have a history of buying Pre-paid minutes with Alltel. Are you sure this is not yours. I cannot delete this transaction because of your history." I inquire on how many times this has been done. She advised me once. I inquire when, and she says today!! I said "Ma'am that is the transaction I am talking about. Can you please fax this release form to my bank?" She said "I really would, but we do not have a fax machine in our call center." She advised me to go to the nearest Alltel so they can see this text message and fax the form. I advise her they close at 5 and it is now 4:30. She says to go ahead. I became very frustrated and advised her I do not appreciate her insulting my intelligence during this conversation and ask her why they do not have a fax machine. She just kept repeating "Mam drive to your local Alltel (Ohhhtal is how she pronounced it) and have them fax it." She would say nothing more than that. Just like a broken record. My husband took the phone and tried to discuss the matter with her and she repeated the same thing over and over. He got so mad and cussed her out. She refused to give the direct 800# to that department, an extension or employee ID #. She just said the same thing over and over. So we stay on the phone and drive 30 minutes and get there as they are locking the doors, but I shimmy my way in. I told her I was there and would get someone to talk to her. She did not respond. "Hello, hello?" My screen said call disconnected. Great!

I am in limbo once again from customer service to financial services to replenishment several times again while standing in Alltel waiting on a representative in person. This place was packed and it was already closed. I wait... on hold and in person. Transfer, transfer, transfer. I wait. Then a man comes on the line from replenishment. He laughs and says this must be Mrs. F. I never even gave him my name. He advises me all supervisors are busy and places me on hold. Until 5:30 he would pick up and say nothing then hit the hold button again. Finally he just disconnected the call.

Yay! A representative in person is finally available. My husband and I inform him of what is going on. He says," Mam I am so sorry, but there is no reason for you to be here. We cannot do anything for you." I already knew this. He gave me the 1-800 # for the prepaid services department and apologized. He notated my personal account and advised me to use "That black phone." I called from their phone and could never get through. I was finally disconnected again by an agent "looking for a supervisor" at 6PM. I thanked the sales associate for his time and left since all other customers were gone.

In the car I called the replenishment department and was sent back to financial and customer service and back again and the agent on the phone advised me she had to look for a supervisor. Where on earth are these supervisors? She puts me on hold and never comes back. I hear the little recording over and over with a pause in-between and then back on hold. Finally she disconnects my call.

I call back. I call back. A man answers and calls me by my name and says he will look for a supervisor. I hold. Finally he comes back and says "My supervisor said to forward you to financial services. He is standing behind me right now." I advise him not to and he laughs and says "Please hold." This is not a game people. About 10 minutes later he comes back and says "Mam there are no supervisors available at this time." I asked him what happened to the one standing behind you and he says, "Oh yeah, I did tell you that didn't I?" I advised him yes and please put him/her or some supervisor on the phone. He laughs and places me on hold until around 6:45. Or at least he thought he did. I could hear him laughing and talking the whole time. He eventually transferred me to a lady who answered and said, "Thanks you for call Alltel (No these are not typos) my name is Ann how I help you?" I say yes ma'am, she cuts me off starts yelling in another language and hangs up. Oh my God, I am a little more than furious right now.

My husband decides he will call. I also call on my phone. We both wait. We refuse to be transferred. The agents must have been side by side because we could hear them one anotherâs conversations. His guy finally got a supervisor named Simone who was the sweetest person and I explained again!! this horrible situation. She apologized and researched the series of #s my bank gave me and turned up nothing. No phone #, no confirmation #, finally at 8PM she asked me to try calling my bank on 3-way. I did so successfully this time, and they could only give her the same info I already had. It did absolutely no good. I gave her my debit # and she pulled up all transactions. For some reason she could not delete it from there? What? This is crazy. She said they do not have the authorization to just delete something. She said she does not know how "Jacey" could have done that because there are no notes and no account to put them on. She told me it has to go through the fraud department. She tried to transfer me and they were closed. She apologized profusely and gave me the fraud dept # and advised me to call at 8AM my time because it is the one nearest my location in the same time zone. I thanked her for not disconnecting my call and actually helping me. It was 8:30 PM... my only day off in 7 days.... a Sunday....

Today 7:30AM... I get up early and check my bank account. Transaction still pending. I call Alltel customer service on MY account and advise them my account is blocked and the payment I set up 2 weeks ago to come out this past Friday for MY REAL CONTRACT ACCOUNT has not yet debited and is not pending so it may not go through. They lady advises me my services may be disconnected. I advise her of everything from last night. Instead of telling me she cannot help me in the beginning she lets me go on and on for 30 minutes. When I am finished she tells me she cannot help me I need financial services. With a huge migraine I tell her, "No they cannot help me." She said yes they can. You have to call and tell them this on your personal account, but they do not open until 7AM. I advised her it is 8am. She tells me it is by my time but they do not open for 3 more hours. End of that call...

I call the fraud # I was given immediately. I get a voicemail message for an associate that says he will be out of the office for a week to try his mobile. I try his mobile, no answer. I call the original #. Same message. Dead end....

I call customer service. After 20 minutes of fighting to get a supervisor "Steven" on the phone I am told by the supervisor that he cannot give me a direct fraud dept # because they do not have access to that and they do not accept direct calls from the public anyway. He then tries to transfer me to them. He comes back and says they are not answering to call back later. I advise him to try again that I do not have "later" I have to go to work. He does so and same result. He then advises me I am not calling the right department anyway and transfers me to financial services before I can say anything.

This financial services associate says "Ma'am this here is the fraud dept # I am going to give you. I don't know why he didn't give it to you, and they do accept calls from the public." She then transfers me. During this time I though nothing of it not even being 7AM "Mountain time". And whoa, what do you know someone is answering in Financial Services. Could have handled one problem right there.

The gentleman from the fraud department advises me I have called the wrong fraud # because he is not in NC. He gives me the correct # and tells me they cannot do anything without a police report anyway. What? This is the first I have heard of filing a police report. He proceeds to speak to me in a demeaning tone, you know, like I am slow. He tells me that all of the information I have been given is incorrect. I ask him if he can pull up all transactions processed through Alltel using my debit card. He advises me yes and requested my card #. I gave it to him and he says he sees the charge. I ask if he can give me a confirmation # or account # or phone # or something. He says no. I tell him I need the confirmation # because it was authorized on my card. He refuses to give me the information. He says he has to protect his client's information. What? I am your client. I just want the measly confirmation # used on my debit card. He advised me it has to be court ordered for that information to be released. He said to call the other fraud # because he doesn't have time to talk to someone that is not in his area. Okay, what just happened? I was nice.

I call the Sheriff's Dept and wait an hour and a half for an officer to come out. He takes my info and advises me it will be a week or so before a financial crimes investigator gets my case and will be in contact.

I call customer service back to be rerouted to financial services. I get the same guy from before that "said" he was a supervisor "Steven". Why is a supervisor answering customer service calls if they can never be found? Anyway, he transfers me to Financial Services after telling me "Oh yeah I remember you" after I went through the story AGAIN.

Financial Services advises me my service may be disconnected since my bank account is blocked due to the fraudulent activity. If they receive a returned payment it will be disconnected regardless of the situation. Thanks lady please notate my account! You have a great day too!

I then call the most recent fraud # I was given. The gentleman was very nice and the conversation lasted all of 2 minutes. He asked the nature of my call. I advised him my debit card was fraudulently used to pay on a prepaid account and I have no clue as to who it belongs to. He asked if a family member has ever used my card for this or if I had voluntarily had done so. I advised him no I do not even know anyone with a prepaid Alltel phone. He said, âOh, because all we can do is reverse payments to an account that had been accidentally debited because of information stored in the system previously. He advised me everything has to be done through my bank to call them with my police report and that Alltel can do nothing and refused to give me any information regarding the posted payment. Personal Opinion: What in the world do you need your fraud department for? Fraudulent activity means you have no knowledge of the transaction. Not just reversals for agent mistakes.

I am at a loss for words. Yes, I can dispute this with my bank. Yes, the police can investigate. NO ALLTEL IS NOT ON THE SAME PAGE AS A WHOLE.

I work for the bank my accounts are with. If this would have put me in the negative I could have lost my job. It is against the code of ethics. I work in collections and I talk to clients every single day, all day long. If you do not know what you are talking about, you find out the proper course of action and you do not just send a client on to the next person because you don't want to take the time to help them. You take care of them and help find a solution. And you NEVER deny someone to speak with a supervisor or you are putting your job on the line. Yes, you do your all to help the client to avoid getting a supervisor, but you never mock a client or just hang up. This is ridiculous and I am disgusted. I had to take a day off just to handle this bull. I hate Alltel. Yes, I know we have to wait out our contract we just renewed. Otherwise Alltel will Win and we will have to pay over $800 to end our contracts early and pay for a new contract elsewhere. I am fully aware Alltel did not steal my identity, but they did nothing to help me gain it back or feel like a valued client.

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My Experience With Alltel: An Essay

Posted by Briscott7 on 07/05/2008

OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA -- The letter I wrote to Alltel in regard to their breach of contract. No response, issue not resolved.

Hello,
My name is Brianna Scott. I have been with your company for 20 something days and I will now go day by day minute by minute with you about my experiences over the last 25 days and allow you to make up your mind whether this is a customer experience situation you would like for your company.

I ordered my phone via the internet on Friday June 6, 2008. I received the phone on Monday June 9th. On the 4th day of having the phone I called in about my phone not receiving or sending picture messages. They then transferred me to your technical department. The first time they said they fixed it (on the phone 32 minutes). I waited a few days hoping it was.. but alas, it was not. I called back waited 43 minutes (I have a phone that keeps tabs of times of my calls) to speak to a woman that told me she would have to put out a trouble ticket. In her words, this would take 24hrs and a tech would text or call me in regards to the trouble ticket. A week later a gentleman called me and let me know that it was my phone. He said that I could exchange the phone through my warranty but he suggested in his "professional and personal" opinion that the LG scoop was a troublesome phone and I should just exchange it for another brand. Thus started the battle with Alltel.

A day or so later I called in asking to exchange my phone. they told me to go to an Alltel store to do the exchange. I explained to them at that time that I have a heart condition (I am only 27 so its pretty serious) and that it would be hard for me to go to the closest store which was 45 minutes away from my home due to the heat and my heart. Yet, they insisted this was the ONLY way to exchange my phone. I got out of the house and drove all the way to your Alltel store in Oklahoma City on N. Penn Ave. to be greeted by two busy men and a woman who clearly worked there but was too busy on her phone to even acknowlege me. That's when the gentleman came from the back to ask "what do you want" not "how can I help you".

I first asked him if there were any chairs in the back or if I could possibly trouble the texting woman for her chair because standing is hard and he explained" we do not have any what can do". I realized I just needed to explain the situation and get out of there. After explaining it to him he told me that since I didn't have the box (no one told me that I needed it) there was nothing he could do then started to just walk off. I called out to him and he sighed. actually sighed when he turned around to "help" me. I asked him what would be exchangeable with my phone for no added cost and he just said "I don't know you'll probably just need to buy a new one" as the conversation went on he then figured out that I had indeed ordered online and then stopped the conversation dead, actually interrupting me to do so, and informed me that he cannot help nor would he because I ordered online and I needed to exchange over the phone. He then walked in the back never to be seen again. So I got back in my car and drove the 45 minutes back to my house empty handed. Not done yet.
After a couple of days I felt calm enough to call in yet again to try to exchange my phone that is when I got 9 different 800,866,877 numbers all of which were wrong. I spent yet another 49 minutes on the phone this time with an additional 54 minutes on the wrong numbers.

So I calmed down and tried again. This time I am FINALLY told that all online orders are through a different company called "lets talk". There is no mention of this on the website, I thought I was doing business with ALLTEL not some other defunct cellphone company. I finally get that number call them and guess what? Instead of the usual 30 days (I have had with every other cell phone provider in the world) to cancel I only had 15 and the same with an exchange. This is the first time in all the HOURS I have spoken to Alltel that anyone has said this. Granted I should have read that. I understand that but I just thought it was abnormal to shorten that time so drastically. They agreed but said to exchange my phone I would have to be without it for up to 2 weeks. As I said before I am extremely ill (died once already) I need my phone. No matter what. This is the reason I got the phone in the first place (actually why my boyfriend of 9 years got it for me) so this was not acceptable. (phone call lasting 1hr 23 min) I then call Alltel and prepare to cancel and cut my loses. I call your cancellation department the first time and I spoke to the most amazing gentleman.

He convinced me that this was not the norm and he offered me 40 dollars off of my bill and I stayed. He assured me that he had spoken to lets talk and I would be able to go ahead and do the exchange. (hold time 17 minutes total call time 52 mins). A day or so later ( my heart can only handle so much) I tried the exchange again only they had no notes explaining anything that gentleman had told me.(phone call total 1hr 16 mins)Again frustrated with your company as a whole and dealing yet again with misinformation I decided to cut my loses and cancel. That is when I got a hold of the best person yet. She was attentive she was understanding and she promised me help.

She understood that we weren't in a financial spot to purchase yet another phone without the refund of the broken one first and she understood that I had been treated awful across the board by your reps ( I left out most of those facts because this is long enough as is). I was severely emotional crying most of the time and just wanted to cancel or fix the issue. She promised me the ability to get a full refund on my phone and a contract through Alltel itself not the other company, new working phone free (she quoted the Motorola rokr specifically, and she promised 1 month free service since I had been through so much. While on hold waiting for the confirmation of everything I was somehow disconnected. (phone call lasting 1hr 49 mins)

A couple hours later I call back in (hold time 46 mins)and get a hold of a woman that was not very happy to be at work. In the first seconds I tell her to read the previous womans notes hoping to aviod telling my story again and getting yet another answer. She rudely put me on mute without explaining she was even going to put me on hold. Upon asking for a supervisor she just sat silently for 5 minutes ( 5 minutes 12 secs exactly) while I was complaining about it to my boyfriend she starts yelling at me that " I was committed to harassing her and she would let me go now" I then asked for the supervisor again, she again went silent for 3 minutes (19 secs) while I yelled that I wanted a supervisor.

That is when Leo the supervisor came into my life. He explained that he had been listening to the conversation for over 7 minutes and he saw nothing wrong with how she was handling the call (this is the first thing he says to me) and that I was obviously overreacting and needed to just hang up and call back later. I then BEG him to hear me out and read the notes. All I wanted was what the previous girl should have left notes about. He told me that I "wasn't getting anything free out of him and to move on". I hung up. (phone call lasting 1hr 12 mins) Thirty minutes after talking to your "supervisor" I had a mild heart attack induced by stress. I hadn't so much as walked that day you tell me what caused it. I was released the next morning and decided since they had put me on some pills to lower my stress (xanax not that you should know but hey its an essay) I called back in.

Now this girl explains that I can not get a free phone but I can get a refund on the messed up phone so I decide to cut my loses and just buy another phone after another 1 hr 38 min phone call she told me that there were some computer issues there and she was unable to confirm my order but that she would call me on Monday (the next day) I was very uneasy about this given all the misinformation and lies and I told her that. She then promised she would call me on Monday not to worry that "she was here to fix this". Now its Tuesday she hadn't called so I called in (41 min hold)got a hold of another individual that read the notes and was wanting to transfer me to the previous girl. I just wanted the order put through(and it should have already gone through on Sunday) that is when I found out that Leo was this girls manager too and he wanted to personally handle the situation. I refused explaining to the gentleman that I was not wanting to deal with a defunct supervisor and he hung up on me with someone (a male) in the background close enough for me to hear telling him to do so. I do believe I heard Leo's voice. This call lasted 38 mins.
Now I still have a broken phone. I still have to pay for service I haven't been able to fully use and I am not done.

Today I call Lets Talk and I don't get to get a refund for the phone. Its been too long. So I am out the 100 on that phone and the 90 I owe on my bill what else?

You didn't track my 10 favs and I am going to be over charged on my bill since I went over my minutes this month.. not my fault but I am sure ill pay for that too.

What has the first 30 days of my Alltel plan cost me?
190 in defunct phone charges
13 hrs in frustrating phone calls
47 minutes writing this email
19 calls about my bill being late
0 calls to resolve this issue
And however much you decide its going to cost me to cancel on top of all of that. and for what? Nothing. A horrible horrible experience that only cost me money I didn't have to begin with.

I really hope you don't have too many more people out there like me.. but I am afraid you do.

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Alltel is greedy, incompetent, and should be avoided at all costs

Posted by Blazer_Bob on 02/05/2008

ATLANTA, GEORGIA -- I am active duty Air Force, and I purchased my cell-phone in March of 2006 in Phoenix after returning from the Middle East. I had orders to Atlanta, and the representative assured me that it would work in Atlanta, otherwise I could return it. Alltel, when they work, work impeccably. Rates were reasonable, reception was never lacking, I traveled all over the United States, and their website is easy to navigate and understand.

In December of 2007, my cell-phone got wet, and the battery went bad, my fault, absolutely. I found out I was eligible for a new phone on December 13th. I was able to keep my cell phone working on one of those ridiculously weak $1 batteries off of eBay until January 14th, when I visited family and celebrated a late Christmas in Arizona where I renewed my contract and got a new phone.

This new phone was scratched on the plexiglass on the front cover, but because I am hard on cell-phones, I didn't mind one scratch because I figured there would be many more, soon. I should have looked deeper into this.

I instantly noticed the battery only lasted about 11-hours per charge when I wasn't speaking on it. I chalked it up to a weak battery, but 11 hours isn't terrible. I returned to Atlanta after a few days and the battery life kept declining. I noticed I also didn't have reception where I used to have reception. At 6-hours of battery life, I called Alltel to see how they would help me. This was on the 25th of January, 11 days after I took receipt of the phone, well within the 15-day return policy.

I was informed that I had several options, I could take it to a local store, of which there are none in Atlanta, or they might be able to do a mail replacement. My best bet, they said was to take the phone to a store 64 miles away, about two-hours with traffic. For some reason, I expected a call-back, I can't remember if I was told to expect this or not, I'll assume I was in the wrong, and after a week, I called back. At this point the battery lasted about 5-hours off the charger.

I was given the number for the store 64 miles away and told to call them. This is where I started to get frustrated with Alltel, no-one works together in their customer service departments. Whoever heard of customer-service telling a customer to call someone to work on the phone? What is customer service's job if they are merely to tell you whom to call for customer service?

I called the retail store, and they said they would replace the battery and/or phone if I brought it in, but they understood my frustration at driving so far, and recommended I try a replacement by mail.

So I called customer service again. They informed me that they could send me a new phone, but it wouldn't come with a battery. How worthless is that? They said the problem probably was that I had an Arizona number in Georgia, a problem I never had with my last phone. They offered me a new number, but I didn't need a new number, I needed a new battery, which they couldn't arrange. I told the girl that I would drive to the store and they would replace my battery. She said, "The note here only says they'll look at the phone." There is no way I was going to drive four hours round trip for them to look at my phone, which only needed a battery.

She recommended I call the store that I bought the phone from. Here is the worst part about Alltel. I was informed that I did not get my phone at an Alltel store, despite the great-big Alltel sign hanging on the store and the Alltel logos on the employee's shirts. Because I did not get the phone from Alltel, I should contact the store, and see what they could do. Alltel is incompetent when it comes to intercompany communication. She gave me the number.

I called the store, and the phone was hooked to a fax machine. I gave the store and the customer service girl the benefit of the doubt, we all make mistakes and maybe the phone wasn't hooked to a fax machine, but that she's accidentally given me the wrong number. I looked it up on Alltel's website, and indeed, their only number listed is hooked to a fax machine.

At this point I wanted to have my ducks in a row, so I compiled the list of reps I had talked to, both with happy faces and frowny faces based on their level of helpfulness, and I flipped through my phone to see my call history of when I had called "Customer Service". At this point I noticed that there were calls from the 12th of January, two days before I got the phone. There were about two dozen calls from the 5th of January to the 12th, and also a dozen text messages. It was a used phone. Probably returned for the exact same problems I was now having.

I called and explained what I had just found, and that if the problem could not be resolved, I was leaving Alltel. At this point, my battery was dying at 4-hours without use, and with the calling into Alltel, it was dead. I work part-time in ministry and cannot go without a cell-phone. It can literally be the difference between life and death.

February 5th, I signed a new contract with a different cell-phone company, got a new (actually new) phone, and canceled my service with Alltel.

I called to find out what we were going to do about the cancellation fee of $200, since their incompetent representatives were unable to resolve my issues. I got bounced around the company again, talked to a customer service rep, a billing agent, a customer service rep, and finally got the third rep to transfer me to a supervisor. He told me to call the store I bought my phone at.

So here I am, happily rid of Alltel for the cost of $200, and in possession of a dead used "new" cell phone that is less than four weeks old, but happily with a new company with a new non-Alltel/non-Alltel affiliate cell-phone.

Not once during my calls with Alltel did they offer me a new battery, assurance that if I drove four-hours, they would replace my phone, or any sort of monetary discount. When I first started service with my first cell-phone company in 2000, I had a cell-phone self destruct under warranty, and it took me three days to get an opportunity to replace it, they gave me a brand new cell-phone and my money back for those three days. What's so hard about that for Alltel to understand?

Alltel is greedy, incompetent, and should be avoided at all costs.

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Sold out to Verizon or is it AT&T????

Posted by Raptorman88 on 11/04/2010

I would greatly suggest to all who read this to never, ever, ever, sign any contracts for any cell phone company. In fact, we would all be better off if we BOYCOTT the Big Cell companies (Verizon and AT&T) entirely.

We have had our cell phone service with Alltel in Rural SD for several years. In general, the phone service itself has been very good. Customer service as other have said has been rude and ridiculous, but the service has been good.

Now however, Alltel has been bought out by Verizon and thanks to the non-monopoly clause of the FCC, Verizon had to sell its SD Alltel assets to AT&T. Of course, we "upgraded our phone in June, and we are still under contract with Alltel/Verizon. Now, unfortunately, despite our wishes, that contract is going to be sold to AT&T. The problem is, that I do not want to be part of AT&T. I want absolutely nothing to do with that miserable, worthless company. I have bad blood with them going way back to college. So I have no interest in joining AT&T.

Alltel/Verizon could have done the right thing and released us from our contract, but that would be asking too much. They say, that I am "required to try out AT&T for at least 30 days" and if I decide not to continue using AT&T service then AT&T will let me out of the contract with no strings attached (Yeah right!) They are even giving me (since the phone I picked out will nolonger work on their modified towers) a "free" phone as a welcome!!!! Yeehaw. Of course none of my whopping three phone choices are the phone I currently own and purchased at the store via Alltel and I of course... I don't want AT&T!

So... without my consent, input or anything my contract is sold to another company and I am forced to pay for their service for 1 month even though I know I want nothing to do with them. I am to waste my valuable time filling out form after form and getting and returning "free" phones, signing up with them and then dropping a service I have quite clearly stated that I do not want OR... I am forced to pay $200.00 to get out of my Alltel contract. The Alltel/Verizon customer service agent actually had the nerve to tell me that this fee was "small". Unbelievable! In what world does one live in, when a $200.00 waste of money for no service is "small".

The icing on the cake... if I refuse to pay them, then they destroy my good credit and harass me with collection agents for the next 20 years. Nice little system they have set up huh? If there are any lawyers trolling in here looking for the next case call me.

If you are reading this review, please take my advice and never ever ever sign any contract with any of these crooks. "Free" cell phone or not. Don't be fooled by the illusion of choice. They are all in it together.

Enclosed please find a check for $48.38, this will be the final money that you will receive from me, I will not pay you a disconnect fee of $200.00 that you have applied to my account.

I have been an Alltel customer in good standing for many, many years and had no intention of changing carriers.

My son attends college at Western Carolina University in the western North Carolina mountains, for the first 2 years there, his Alltel service worked fine, about a year and a half ago the service became very frustrating, dropping calls, unable to hear conversations clearly, receiving messages late, etc.. After contacting Alltel many times by phone and going into the Alltel store in Greensboro, NC numerous times we were told we should purchase a new phone which of course included a new contract (wasted time and money), nothing changed, phone service was still poor in his college area (by the way, there is no Alltel store in that area, Silva, NC). Finally I was told by your representatives numerous times the connection problems and roaming charges that were often being applied to my account were created by another carriers tower that had been built in that area, by the way my plan included no roaming charges but they were often added to my bill.

A few weeks ago we again went to the Alltel store in Greensboro and had the phone checked for programming, the agent there said the software was up to date but that there had been many complaints about the Alltel service in that area and that were should contact an Alltel supervisor (he provided me with a number) and Alltel would probably release me from the contract (there was just over a month left on the contract). When I called the number I asked repeatedly to speak to a supervisor, after much discussion I was finally told âIâll get you a supervisorâ and he proceeded to hang up, at that point I had had enough, I went to Venison and had the number ported overâ¦.the Verizon service works perfectly in the Silva area.

After receiving my final bill from Alltel that included an early disconnect fee of $200.00 I once again called Alltel this morning (9/18/07), spent considerable time on the phone explaining the problems to your representative who said she would confer with a supervisorâ¦she never returned to the phone!

Now in short, Alltel has the nerve to charge me an early disconnect fee of $200.00, I had done everything in my power to not change carriers from Alltel to Verizon and received absolutely no help from Alltel to resolve the problems. I feel it was Alltel who failed to fulfill the contract by not at the very least providing me with the amount of service I originally hadâ¦not less.

I guess Iâm the most disappointed in the fact of how I have been treated with this $200.00 disconnect fee after all the money you have received from me over the past 10 â 14 years (never a late payment) and for Alltel to completely ignore the fact this problem was not created by me the customer but in fact by Alltel.

The facts are these, my son needed dependable service at the college he attends, Alltel no longer supplied these services and I have spent over a year and my money throwing good after bad trying to help Alltel to provide service or resolve this problem, after Alltel was unable to do so I had to take matters into my own hand and find a carrier that could provide the service that we need.

Again I will not be paying to $200.00 disconnect fee.

Sincerely,

Donald

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Worst Ever!!!

Posted by Lila on 10/26/2013

Rating: 1/51

BARNWELL, SOUTH CAROLINA -- I've been a customer with Alltel for quite a while and trust me it's only because there's no other cellular providers other than them that work in my area. When calling with a problem, each representative will give you incorrect info and they doesn't care about their customers at all (they just want the money). I have never seen a major company like this one, they are the worst company ever. I've had to purchase several phones, because of vast problems that I've had with the touchscreen freezing up or several other issues that they never resolved.

All I keep getting is the runaround, which always lead them to telling me that there's nothing they can do for me but advise me to purchase a new phone. If I'm spending top dollar for my phones, the least Alltel can do is provide me with a new phone, instead of issuing their customers the old refurbished ones.

So sick of Alltel, as soon as another company becomes available, I am done and not looking back.

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Horrible Customer Service, Called Me a Liar

Posted by Cassandra on 08/04/2011

My husband was with Alltel for years and never had a problem. When we got married, I was added to his plan. They were running a deal on a data card, no start up fees, no cost, $40 a month. We added it to our plan for my brother. They charged me $81 at the store the day I bought it! They called me up 30 minutes later and told me to come back in they made a mistake and will refund me. The manager said that instead of me coming back, they can just get a credit to our bill. It took almost 3 months of my nagging to get anything back...and we still ended up paying $25 out of pocket.

The manager was extremely rude and more interested in helping the "young pretty" crowd then the normal people.

For the next 6 months, none of our bills were correct. Every single one of them had something wrong and while they were fixing one bill, our phones were shut off! Apparently they didn't note the account they were crediting us and the bill was late, so they shut us down forcing us to pay reactivation fees.

Cancelling was a nightmare as well. When they switched over to AT&T we took the chance to get out of there. We were billed over $80 for an partial month of service on just the data card (we switched our phones to Sprint a few weeks prior to this). We had to pay AT&T a bill and Alltel, almost $140.

When I called Alltel to find out what was going on, the manager stated "I can guarantee you no one said that to you." She called me a liar! Instead of helping me try to figure out what was wrong she was accusing me of lying and making up stories. She wouldn't help us at all.

I finally paid all the bills and will NEVER work with them again. If anyone tells me they are going to sign up for them, I will force them to walk the other way.

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Waiting...still waiting...waiting some more!

Posted on 06/02/2010

FARMINGTON, NEW MEXICO -- I have an issue with a particular location in Farmington, NM. They are located at 3554 E. Main Street. I went to buy my daughter a new cellphone and a rate/plan. I walked in and was told to sign-in. There was at least 8-10 other names. I figured I'd be in for a little bit of a wait to say the least. Kind of reminded me of signing in to get my hair cut. So I waited, and waited, and waited some more. At this point, I've invested 1-hr & 15-minutes, and I was reaching my breaking point. Some have greater thresholds for pain, but this is where mine starts to taper off. What irritated me the most, was the fact that not all of the agents were busy. Some were just standing next to their monitors/desks and chit-chatting amongst each other.

So I decide to get a little cute and call the store itself, knowing full well that there were at least 4-5 unoccupied employees to answer my call. I dialed and it rang, and rang, and rang some more. Nothing. No one would bother to pick up the phone. I called the corporate 800 number and they said they'd log the complaint. Yeah, and store it with the other 465,000 complaints stuffed away in some dusty warehouse of imaginary complaints. Good luck with that angle! So I walk towards the back and attempt to open what looks like a backroom door/breakroom. An employee rushes up to me and informs me that I cannot go in there. I said, "And if I do"? She tells me that she'll have to get the manager. I said, "Great, that's who I want to talk to anyway"!

A few minutes later a manager appears and asks what the problem is. I tell him that I've been waiting in line for over an hour, and haven't even been asked how I can be helped. I then explained the lack of people answering the phones, at which time he accused me of over-exaggerating. I dialed the store # in front of his presence, and it rang, and rang, and rang some more. He walked over to one of his associates and asked why they weren't answering the phone. They just kind of shrugged and mumbled something to the effect that they thought someone else was going to answer it.

The manager apologized for the behavior of his workers, but not for accusing me of embellishing the facts. I said thanks for talking to your workers, but after everything I've went through, I think I'll take my money and my business elsewhere. Commission lost...

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Alltel Family Finder service by WaveMarket

Posted by tzr on 07/15/2009

This problem started over a month ago. After verifying with Alltel that a spare KRZR phone was compatible with the Alltel Family Finder service, I activated the phone for my 11 year old. The application would not download and trouble tickets were opened. To date, no response from those trouble tickets has been received. After a couple of weeks the local Alltel manager suggested the best solution was to buy a new phone with a new contract. I downloaded the application while in the store. Now, the Alltel Family Finder website gives an error message stating it doesn't recognize my phone number or Alltel account number. More trouble tickets are opened and escalated.

I discovered using google that a California company named WaveMarket is the third party responsible for the Alltel Family Finder application.

I've attempted to use WaveMarket's help forum but have not received a reply. The forum appears to be abandoned and is littered with spam messages for various drugs.

I've followed up with Alltel several times but they claim there is nothing more they can do until WaveMarket's Alltel Family Finder engineers answer the trouble tickets.

The WaveMarket website lists the corporate officers. The WaveMarket CEO has a Facebook account found through google. He replied promptly and has passed my contact information to someone within the company.

EDIT/UPDATE: I did hear back from WaveMarket as promised. They are aware that the KRZR is not compatible with this service and should be removed from the compatible list. They are also aware that some Alltel Family Finder customers are not able to register for the service. As Alltel has been bought and sold again, it will not likely be fixed for these customers.

Happy with WaveMarket's response but Alltel is a lost cause with its customers in limbo until AT&T or Verizon pick them up.

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Overcharging /poor customer service

Posted by grandmakathy on 06/18/2009

After years of service with Alltel and the past couple of years not happy ones we are planning to move over to AT&T. We have been overcharged for our service for over a year that we know of and we are looking into all the past bills. A little over a month ago we upgraded to 3 smart phones (we have 7 lines one is a internet card). When we got the smart phones we were informed that the bill would be lower thatn what we were paying, oh yea, this is when we found out that the air card was less a month than I had been paying. After a couple of hrs trying to get the account set up correct we left thinking wow that is great. The bill was less than it had been in a while. That is until the bill came in TWICE as much as it had been. So, I take the bill to the Alltel store and wait a couple of hrs and finally the representative was really nice and about a hr. or so later she had the bill all straight (or so we thought)I came home with instrustion to bring my payment in to the office so that it would be entered into the system correctly. Tis we did and everything was OK. A week later I receive another bill. Itook this to the store and again waited acoupel of hrs to get this fixed. Everything was supposed to be fixed again and I paid the bill while I was there. Aweek later my phone is shut off. I called customer service again and they tell me that all that money has been applied to three of the lines and that I have a credit but I would have to pay the amount due which is what the entire bill is supposed to be before service will be back on. So, again I call the store and talk to the representative who has been helping me all along, she goes to her suppervisor and in lesss than 30min my phone is back on. Then last night my phone got cut off again. Why can't these people get this right? They expect me to come up with another payment and let them credit my account with the exter money. Iwork hard for my money I can not afFord to just let them hold my money. I have placed a call to the store an I am wating for a return.